VLADIVOSTOK, June 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia, India and China will promote cooperation in the fight against the new threats and challenges, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with his Indian and Chinese counterparts.
"We are stepping up practical cooperation between the three countries in the struggle against new threats and challenges, above all, international terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime," Lavrov said.
According to him, the three foreign ministers agreed on complementing political dialog by cooperation in the economic sphere, "particularly, in transport, energy, agriculture and high technologies."
Lavrov said that Russian, Chinese and Indian businessmen would meet in New Delhi in 2006.
The three countries are to promote cooperation in preventing disasters and eliminating their aftermath.
"We evaluated the experience of interaction between our countries in eliminating consequences of the recent Asian tsunami and agreed to strengthen the existing mechanisms for preventing disasters and eliminating their effects," Lavrov said.
In the end of 2005, a Russian-Indian summit will take place in Russia, he said.
"By the end of 2005, the intergovernmental Russian-Indian commission for trade and economic and scientific-technical cooperation will hold a session. Moreover, the Russian and Indian prime ministers will exchange visits," he said.
"The Indian foreign minister' visit to Russian in 2005 will precede the summit of the Russian and Indian leaders, which is planned later this year," Lavrov added.
The Russian and Chinese foreign ministers held a bilateral meeting to exchange ratifications to the additional agreement on the eastern section of the Russian-Chinese border.
"I am content that ratification took place. My Chinese counterpart and I agreed that our experts would soon begin considering hydro-economic activities and hydrology," the Russian foreign minister said.
The additional agreement involved two border sections, the Bolshoi island area in the upper reaches of the Argun river and the area of the Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussiriiski islands near Khabarovsk, constituting less than 2% of the entire Russian-Chinese border (4,300 kilometers).
The border will now pass along the water surface and the islands. The total area of the two regions (over 370 square kilometers) is divided between Russia and China into equal parts.
